


burning pitch

by stainedglassflood



Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell, Simon Snow & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Vampires, canon-typical 'lamb is morally grey and makes some good points and some terrible ones', probably the only thing i'll ever write that acknowledges wayward son
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29531484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stainedglassflood/pseuds/stainedglassflood
Summary: a fragment born from me wondering what it would look like if lamb had ever found out baz was a mage. set in a less bloody version of the climax of WS.
Relationships: Lamb & Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Pitch
Kudos: 11





	burning pitch

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of orphaned scenes hanging out in the notes app on my phone, and some of them contain genuinely interesting ideas that I don't want to waste, but I know I'll never flesh them all out into fully-formed stories. Here's one of them.

The flames bite at his clawed hands. His gaze is cruel. Violent. With all the ravenous fire of any cross-and-stake hunter. I'm more concerned for him than for myself. He spits his perfect boarding school elocution at me like a dying dragon spits sparks.

"Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch."

I just stare.

I know I need to act now, to calm him, de-escalate, because it's clear he wants me to hurt him, but instead I'm frozen, ears ringing-

Because I remember that disaster, those fools who lashed out with no demands nor allies yet thought themselves revolutionaries, and I can't understand how that could possibly lead us here. I remember the fallout, I remember the distress calls and the public executions and the mages taking their first excuse for indiscriminate slaughter since Old Man Pitch's time with glee-

How can he possibly be here?

We would have known.

We would have heard, if their abominable plan had succeeded- If they'd brought one of our people into the world with barely the strength to walk, and then left them in the hands of our greatest enemy to be burnt alive-

Old Man Pitch. Headmistress Pitch. Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch.

A boy of twenty with something broken in his eyes and a roaring inferno in each cold hand.

*

"I'm sorry," Lamb whispers.

I don't know what to do with it.

It's cowardice. Or pity. Or a feeble attempt to confuse me.

I don't move.

He steps closer, still wary of my fire. His gaze is searching. My demeanour does not give.

"I'm sorry," he repeats. "I'm so sorry you've had to live like this."

"We don't live," I hiss at him. "We exist."

He just shakes his head. His eyes are brimming with- _something_. It makes my skin crawl.

"I can't believe they left you. You must have been so young."

Left me? Like this?

I twist my neck involuntarily, half flinching away.

"I was an innocent," I tell him coldly. (I'm numb.) "My father has lost too much." (I don't know if I believe it.)

I'm making excuses, justifying myself, when all I've seen in this fateforsaken country is reason after reason that things like me should never be allowed to exist.

Lamb draws within reach, still shaking his head.

"They made you," he says softly. "They gave you life when you were only a child. And they left you in the lion's den."

My unbeating heart jolts. I turn my face away in disgust.

"You cannot honestly mean," I say, voice shaking with swallowed, bitter laughter, "that you're _sorry_ that the creature- the _thing_ who tore out my throat wasn't around afterwards."

He tries to touch my shoulder and I swipe my fire at him. (Weakly.)

"That is exactly what I mean, Basilton! This isn't our way, not any longer- They were reckless! They planned you and then let themselves lose you!"

(Did they? Did they want to keep me, raise me as their own? Would that undead childhood have left me any less broken?)

"They didn't plan anything! They were animals - they were going to eat me alive!" My voice is breaking, wild, wolfish. "Mother wouldn't let them. She killed them all. She sent every filthy one back to hell without hesitation." I can't feel my hands any more. I think I might be laughing.

Lamb is shaking his head again. There are tears in his eyes. "They _wanted_ you, Basilton- that was their plan." He reaches out and touches his hand to my bruised cheekbone. "I know you didn't have a choice, but you would have had their guidance. You were a wanted child."

I close my eyes. Cold water spills onto my cheeks. "My parents wanted me. They took that away."

"I know, child. But you should never have been alone. Your sire wanted you - and the mages took that."

"I'd be alone if they'd taken me, too."

"But you wouldn't have had to fear your own guardians murdering you."

My voice has dropped to a whisper. My fire has gone out. "They're my family."

"And look what they've done to you."


End file.
